


Words Spoken

by KirbyPaint



Category: Pathfinder (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 17:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5342960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirbyPaint/pseuds/KirbyPaint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More than one person says something to Yuki that maybe they shouldn't have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Spoken

A loud shout from outside woke Kaede from her sleep. And her dream was so good, too. In her dream, no dumbasses were outside yelling at her aunt, for whatever reason. Having experienced Yuki’s formidable greatsword skills first-hand, she was sure that whatever problem the guy would be, it wouldn’t be close to whatever Yuki would dish right back.

 

“I’m telling you,” he yelled, “that your constant dueling is a nuisance!”

 

“And I’m telling _you_ ,” oh, how Kaede could _hear_  her Oba’s glare, “that I’m not just going to quit my livelihood because you’re annoyed. You should hear your roosters every morning – the sweet sound of metal on metal is so much nicer than that _cawing_.”

 

Kaede cackled quietly. Those roosters were the current bane of Yuki’s existence, and she made that very clear to everyone. She got up, accepting that she wasn’t getting back to sleep, and sat at her window to hear the argument more clearly.

 

“How dare you insult Tweet and Pecky like that?” the man cried, sounding as if Yuki’d just insulted his entire family.

 

And by the sound of things, she probably just had.

 

He continued his rant, clearly having built this up for weeks. “You and your damned weapons training, as if the world needs more fighting. Why can’t you and your people just go… move to the other side of the world! And just all fight each other!”

 

Yuki sighed, “Because then there’d be no one to buy eggs from you, Mr. Eggman.”

 

“ _It’s Eidhmann_ , and you know that, Harumi Snow! Maybe that’s why you don’t have a husband yet, you’re so forgetful of who everyone is that no man wants to be with you.”

 

By this point Kaede was literally biting a pillow to keep her laughter from escaping.

 

Yuki’s resulting groan of anguish scared some birds from a nearby tree, and as the birds flew away, Vanessa quietly entered the room, joining Kaede in listening in onto the terrible argument. Her shit-eating grin was larger than Kaede’s, and she offered her niece some snacks for increased entertainment enjoyment.

 

“Oh my goddess, you moron, _that’s not why I don’t have a husband_! I. Have. A. Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife. _That_ is why I do not have a husband.”

 

Eidhmann’s resulting gasp of astonishment was almost louder than Yuki’s previous groan, but where Kaede and Vanessa expected the next statement to be some bs about Yuki’s romantic choice, they were both quite off.

 

“You… you… you cannot just call a man a moron! That’s an attack on my honor, one I refuse to stand by and let slide.”

 

“Oh boy, he said the h-word,” Vanessa grumbled.

 

And the h-word did indeed have an effect on Yuki. Kaede and Vanessa watched as she went from irate neighbor to proud warrior woman in an instant, and as her back straightened, she began speaking… almost regally.

 

“If it’s an honor duel you want, it’s an honor duel you’ll get. Meet me here, tomorrow, at noon, and bring your choice of weapon of armor. I know mine. Do not disregard me as just your neighbor – if you hold back, I’ll know. Should you fail to show, you prove your lack of honor. Do not be late.” And with that, she slammed the door, leaving the eavesdroppers in silence.

 

“Great,” Vanessa sighed, “now she’s gonna be tense all day. And on my day off!”

 

“You want me to distract her?” Kaede half-heartedly suggested, trying to “be nice” for once.

 

“No, but thank you, there’s no way she’ll ever get distracted now. She’s too busy thinking of fighting that guy. Oh, she’ll destroy him! I hope he doesn’t bring friends. He’ll just be embarrassed.”

 

Vanessa hurried from the room, probably rushing to warn the neighbors of tomorrow’s event. Yuki, meanwhile, was in the back room, polishing her greatsword. Not even the training greatsword, no, this was _hers_ , all dragon steel and obsidian.

 

“Oba, you can’t use that here, won’t that be too conspicuous?” Oh god, Aunt Nessa’s got her using nerd words now. What would her mother think??

 

“This is my essence, Kaede. In no lifetime would I ever dare to defend myself without this weapon. If we need to move, we will move, but I won’t live a life where I cannot wield my heritage.”

 

“Okay… dramatic…” she muttered, “and besides, isn’t that the heritage you left behind?”

 

Wrong question. Yuki’s entire body stiffened, and she looked down at her sword with a mixture of despair and rage. Kaede nearly fled the room when her Oba turned to look at her, but she was more afraid of a chase than an outright murder. At least this way she could tell the spirits she stood her ground before death.

 

“I did what I felt I had to do. Your father stepped in for me, even when he didn’t want to. What’s been done is done… and there is no going back. You don’t have the faintest idea what I had to do and hopefully you never will.” She tossed her sword onto the bed, having been successfully distracted. “I’m going out – need to clear my brain. Don’t follow me.”

 

“Oba wait-” she started, but Yuki brushed past her like she wasn’t even there. “Shit,” she muttered, kicking the doorframe.

 

* * *

 

 

With mythic power came mythic speed, and Yuki was never more grateful for that than when she needed to escape. It’d been _decades_ since The War, but it seemed time didn’t truly heal all wounds. Some, it merely watered down.

 

She found herself on the beach, near a steep cliff. This was her place to go when she felt bad, so it was no surprise that Vanessa caught up to her a few hours later.

 

“I wanted to give you some time to be alone,” she called from a few yards away, “but it’s getting kind of late, and I was worried.”

 

Yuki turned and walked back to Vanessa, saying nothing, only embracing her wife in a long hug. She sighed, leaning her head on Vanessa’s shoulder, thankful that she’d found someone who knew her well enough to give her exactly what she needed.

 

“I love you so much, Vanessa,” she whispered. Vanessa just hugged tighter in response, then pulled away. “Do you want to go back, or do you want to stay here some more?”

 

“Will you stay with me?”

 

“Of course, but don’t forget we have a fifteen-year-old heir to the Dragon Empire that we maybe shouldn’t leave alone for too much longer. You know, assassins and all that.”

 

“Ah, yes,” she nodded, “I remember assassins. Glad that’s over for me.”

 

The two sat down on a large conveniently-placed rock. They sat in companionable silence for the better part of ten minutes, but Yuki did eventually speak up.

 

“Sometimes, I can almost forget. Sometimes, it’s just us, we’re just a married couple living on the coast in a house we own. But then someone says something or does something, and I’m twenty five again, and I’m fighting through hell and back for my life and for my home, and in the end I just… left it.”

 

Vanessa said nothing, only scooting closer to Yuki, who continued her speech with a slight quiver in her voice. “I don’t regret leaving, not at all, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t think, you know? I sometimes wonder, what it’d be like, where we’d be. _Who_ we’d be. And even after all this time, the nightmares, the trauma… It still hurts. No matter how hard I try not to let it, it still hurts.” Her head fell into her hands as she let the tears fall, and her shoulders shook with sobs, though no sound escaped. Vanessa simply held her as she got her sorrows out, knowing that she’d sit there all night with Yuki if she had to. Kaede would be fine – she was already quite powerful, any assassin would have to beat out demonic and draconic heritage to take her out.

 

Soon enough, Yuki’s sobs subsided. She leaned into Vanessa’s embrace once more.

 

“I’m so tired,” she said, and Vanessa knew she didn’t just mean physically.

 

“I know, love.”

 

“Can we go home now?”

 

“Yes.”

 

* * *

 

 

Meanwhile, Kaede was sitting alone, a nervous wreck. She wasn’t afraid of baddies, no, she was way better of a fighter than most mooks, and should someone try anything, she was surrounded by weapons, a large number of which she was trained in.

 

No, she was worried about her Oba. She’d never seen Yuki so… upset, and she’d been gone for at least eight hours already.

 

“Is she even coming back?” she wondered out loud to the quiet darkness. Nothing responded, which, yeah that was a good thing, but the house was so cold without her aunts.

 

A few moments later, she heard the door open, and she rushed to meet them. Well, she hoped it was them. It was unlikely that anyone who knew who lived here was stupid enough to just open “Harumi’s” door. And, indeed, Yuki and Vanessa had returned, Yuki looking rather exhausted, but otherwise fine. So, Kaede assumed it was safe to approach her.

 

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, I didn’t mean to upset you!”

 

“You didn’t mean to, but it still happened.”

 

“But I-”

 

“ _However_ that doesn’t mean I can’t forgive you. Not tonight, though. I need rest, and space.” With that, she retired to her room, and Kaede suspected she wouldn’t come out until noon the next day.

 

“Aunt Nessa, I didn’t-”

 

“Oh, sweetie, I know, but you’ve got to understand that those wounds run deep through Oba, and they will for the rest of her life, whether she likes that or not. That was a rough year for her. You think this is bad now, you’d have been horrified at the first few months she went through. She didn’t sleep through the night for weeks.”

 

“I didn’t realize…”

 

Vanessa smiled, “That’s okay. You didn’t know. And we don’t really… discuss that time. The important thing is, you’re sorry. Goddess, that sounds like a cheesy moral story, but honestly, that is what matters. Yuki will recover in time, and don’t worry, you’re still going to stay here and train with her. Like she said, though, she needs some space.”

 

“I don’t want her to hate me though,” Kaede whimpered.

 

“Yuki? Hate you? Hardly. She practically wants to raise you here forever, that’s how much she loves you. And I guess I’m fond of you too,” she joked as an afterthought.

 

Kaede laughed a bit at that. Fond was quite the understatement. Then she frowned, “but Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me stay here forever. I gotta go back eventually.”

 

“Well… Okay, I’ll say this. Should you choose to live here forever, we wouldn’t stop you. We love you dearly, and Yuki definitely loves having a greatsword-inclined child living with her. But your parents did say we can’t force you to stay, and your father did _literally_ say to Yuki, ‘You cannot adopt her as your child, she’s ours,’ even though she asked really nicely. So, wait until you’re of age, and then we’ll talk.”

 

“Heh, lots to think about. I’ll get back to you.”

 

“You’ve got time. No rush. Well, I should probably go be with my wife. She’s had a long night, and has an early morning. Dumbass Eggman saying the h-word, _ugh_.”

 

Kaede sat in the silence once more, though this time, it was far less stifling. Rather, she felt as though a weight had been lifted from her chest.

 

* * *

 

 

Noon arrived, and as expected, Eidhmann was at Yuki’s door. And, as promised, Yuki was there as well. It seemed Vanessa’s guess was right – Eidhmann brought some friends. However, they clearly weren’t there for an honor duel. His gang of nine others were clad in armor that appeared to be made of scraps, with jagged edges sticking out in random places. Upon further observation, that appeared intentional, to prevent foes from grappling. The gang was supplied with decent swords too, with one person wielding a rather nasty-looking mace.

 

“There she is,” Eidhmann cried once Yuki’d opened the door, “the woman who insulted my roosters!”

 

Yuki’s surprise was short-lived, as she realized they tried to ambush her. She walked out the door, taking care to shut it so no one could attack the residents, and quickly maneuvered herself into a more open space. Kaede watched from above with fascination, and Vanessa watched with horror.

 

“They were gonna try to hurt her,” she muttered.

 

“They won’t succeed,” was Kaede’s simple response.

 

And she was largely right. The first group of people all failed at so much as breathing in Yuki’s direction, as she moved just quickly enough that they couldn’t stop her. When she stopped, she was once again outside of the group, and the second wave charged. Two men saw their swords cleaved in half, while one woman’s armor was sliced off. The next group tried to surround her, but Yuki turned out to be far more nimble than they could have expected, expertly dodging each attack, and returning one of her own when able. After about twelve seconds of madness, each opponent but the mace-wielder had been disarmed and knocked onto the ground.

 

Yuki stared this fighter in the visor. She was hoping for their eyes, but it was impossible to tell, since this person was completely covered in metal. She focused, calling upon her mythic charisma to will this person to drop their weapon. However, they didn’t so much as tremble beneath her gaze. She paused, confused, and readied her sword-

 

-as a razor-thin sheet of metal nearly sliced through her neck. Instinct alone (well, perhaps some luck as well) caused her to throw her arms up in defense, and her blade caught most of the metal. Her neck wasn’t unscathed, but the gash was more like a scratch, and it was nothing immediately worrying.

 

Well, besides the flying metal. That was worrying.

 

Two more blades launched at Yuki and she expertly deflected them, deciding that perhaps she should stop toying with this group and instead take this last foe down. Before she could strike, they melted, and pooled around her feet, becoming a metal prison.

 

“What the hell?” she said, slicing at the metal. She could sunder some chunks off, but everything she removed just came back, and after a few moments the metal warped again. This time, it became a chain, and it started to pull her away.

 

“Who are you?” she yelled at the chain. It gave no response, still choosing to pull her across the ground, and soon it would pull her into the forest. She sighed, hoping she wouldn’t have to do this, and inhaled deeply.

 

A moment…

 

Two…

 

And she let loose a great _whoosh_ of flame from her mouth. She aimed it at the end of the chain, which was a great guess, since that was where someone was cloaked. They instantly caught ablaze, shrieking horribly at being literally on fire. Yuki sheathed her greatsword and tackled the cloaked foe, temporarily bending the fire from their body. Kaede arrived with Vanessa shortly afterwards, and the cloak wore off of the enemy. It was just a young woman, hardly the foe Yuki expected, covering her burned face with her hands.

 

“Get off of me, let me go!” she cried.

 

“Not until you tell me who you are and who sent you,” Yuki responded, cool as could be.

 

“Agh, fine. My name’s Karina and Eidhmann hired me to beat you up.”

 

“Okay, so why did you try to drag me out into the forest?”

 

“Because he told me to.”

 

“So he was going to just, what, try and beat me up by himself? Heh.”

 

“No,” Karina glared, “he wants to kill you. I was going to hang you up in the metal while he drained you.”

 

“ _What?_ ” Vanessa yelled, about to tackle Karina, but Kaede held her back.

 

“And why was Eidhmann going to drain me?” Yuki prodded, unsure as to why the rooster farmer wanted to essentially sacrifice what he thought was just a random neighbor he didn’t like.

 

“I don’t know, because he’s insane? He told me my metal bending was a gift from some ancient demon, which I know it wasn’t, and also when my mom brought him some cookies he screamed at her to ‘burn her monstrous creations’ before Pokey – his rooster before Pecky – ‘clawed her eyes out.’”

 

Yuki sighed. This wasn’t a man sent to kill her, he was just a lunatic. “Well then. How about this. You don’t kill me; instead, you help me take him to the authorities, and I’ll pay you double what he was going to.” She studiously ignored Vanessa’s look of indignation and added, “And also, bring me a cookie please. I’m hungry.”

 

Karina instantly agreed, and with her metal bending, it was far too easy to cuff and shackle the attackers. They escorted the gang to the local sheriff, and after a talking-to about dueling in public, they thanked Yuki for bringing in the hooligans that had been ransacking local towns. Karina also supplied Yuki, Vanessa, and Kaede with more than enough sweets, and they parted on good terms.

 

Or, as good of terms as one can after nearly being killed by the other.

 

Once they were home, Vanessa embraced Yuki and kissed her deeply enough to make both Yuki and Kaede blush. “I thought you were going to die!” she yelled.

 

“Who do you think I am?” Yuki responded, a little breathless.

 

“Besides an incredibly brave and stupid warrior woman?” Vanessa quirked, with a look that sent Yuki’s stomach into a tizzy.

 

“Ew, you’re being gross, I’m leaving now,” Kaede said, and after realizing she was being ignored, took the cookies into her room, where she played the contrabass tuba _very loudly_.

**Author's Note:**

> Contrabass tuba is biggest tuba.


End file.
